Revelation –
Jesus Wins!
Revelation is
a vastly complicated book with a ton of variant interpretations. In
fact, if you want to come up with a crackpot idea, you can probably
find something to spin in revelation to justify your idea. It is a
book that is prone to misinterpretation. So, as we dive into it, I
want you to know how I'm going to approach the book.
First – my
basic approach is this: Jesus wins. This book is to be a book of
comfort, reminding folks that Jesus is Risen and Victorious even in
the midst of all the craziness of life. Anything and everything in
the book should end up driving to Christ's Victory, and if our
reading of it doesn't move to Christ Victorious (and the faithful
sharing in His victory), we're reading it wrong.
Second –
while many people have tried to sort out Revelation into some sort of
timeline, I think that misses the point. I will contend (and I'll
explain this contention more and more as we go through the book) that
Revelation is not a chronological book, but rather it is a “seasonal”
book, or a book that looks at the patterns and repetitions that have
gone on throughout creation in the life of the Church. This is
actually a more Jewish/Ancient way of thinking than the Western time
clock and time line approach we have. Hebrew, especially, loves its
patterns, its cycles. The book of Judges, for example, is nothing
but a repeating pattern of Israel forgetting God, getting into
trouble, calling out for rescue, and then being rescued – and it
isn't in chronological order. Revelation plays with that idea of
pattern, of season. (In the Concordia Commentary series, Dr.
Brighton argues that Revelation is mainly describing the Church after
the Ascension, but I think it is describing things from the
beginning. Either way, we agree on the cycles – just not on how
far back they go. At least that's where I am now – who knows, by
the time we get to Revelation 14 or 15, I might have shifted and
started to agree more with Brighton. This is a work in progress.)
And I think this is done in an interesting way. Think of
movie theater, with one John Wayne movie playing on the screen. And
then they project another John Wayne flick on it. And another. And
there are fights and bad guys and it's all crazy... but in the end it
resolves and there's John Wayne, victorious. (Yes, I picked this
image for Pam) That is what Revelation does – it shows the chaotic
history of the world all resolving in Christ. Or maybe you might
think of a musical piece, where there is one theme, and then another
added, and another, and they are all going on and over each other and
louder and more chaos until there is just a perfect, wonderful
resolution – almost like “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles.
And that resolution is Christ Jesus, Crucified and Risen. And
instead of necessarily trying to pick out and analyze each scene from
each film or each note – we'll just ride to the climax and
crescendo and enjoy it.
Part 1 –
Revelation 1:1-8 – The Set Up
Revelation
1:1-3 - The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to
show to His servants that which must swiftly happen, which was
'signed'
through an angel that He sent to His servant John, (2) who witnessed
the word of God and bears the witness of Jesus Christ according to
everything that he saw. (3) Blessed is the one who makes the words of
this prophecy known again,
and blessed are those who hear and keep all that is written in it,
for the time
is near.
Here we have the “introduction” to the letter of
Revelation, and it's an odd one. There's no wonderful greeting, no
typical address that one would expect in a Greek letter. Instead,
there is just the announcement that this is a “revelation” - an
“Apocalypse”. Things may start to get strange.
However, there is a proper order to the things, even if
it's not the one we expect. In fact, this introduction is a
masterpiece of “order”. The Father sends the Son, and the Son
speaks to John through an angel, and John listens to the Son's
message via the angel, and the preacher proclaims what John has said,
and the hearer is lined up smack dab where he needs to be. And
everything is in order – lined up right as it should be. (This is
actually the image of order in the Church in the early Church.) You
also have the “sign” of this – just like in John's Gospel
Jesus' “miracles” are properly called signs. They are evidences
and proofs of who Jesus is, they let you know what is going on even
though it's confusing to the rest of the world. Everything is in
order and lined up in Jesus.
It's important to note this right off the bat.
Revelation is a confusing book written in a confusing time.
Everything is all over the place in the world, and the vision itself
seems to swirl and move around. In spite of all the chaos we might
see, chaos unleashed by sin and the Fall (If you wish, we can
discuss how Genesis 1-2 is almost a hymn to order and Genesis 3 is
the arrival of Chaos) – this is actually orderly, according to
God's plan and purpose. God is utterly in control – and when you
are lined up focusing upon Christ and His Word and the right
preaching of His Word, no matter what you have going on around you
and in you, you will be right where you need to be. And God will
bring you and put you where you need to be again and again through
the proclamation of the Word. That's the set up, that's the promise
of this introduction.
Also, I want to note something with that word for
“time” in verse 3. That is not the word for chronological time
(that would be Chronos), but rather it's the idea of a season, or a
moment. If I say, “It's time to plant the corn” I don't mean
that it is 8:42 on a Tuesday morning – I mean the time is right for
that. It's the season, the time, the right day. The point in that
repeating pattern of the ordered universe where you plant is
approaching again – just like it did last year and just like it
will next year. Might be early or might be late, but the time comes.
That's the idea of time here – and that's the idea that runs
throughout the book.
Revelation 1:4-8 – John to the seven churches in
Asia
- Grace to you and peace from the One who is and was and is coming,
and from the seven spirits which are before the throne, (5) and from
Jesus Christ – the Witness, the Faithful, the Firstborn of the
Dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who has loved us
and has freed us our sin by His blood, (6) and made kings, priests
unto His God and Father, to Him be glory and rulership
forever and ever. Amen.
Behold,
he is coming with the clouds,
and see
Him every eye shall,
even
those who pierced him,
and
they will beat their breast in all nations because of Him. Yes,
Amen!
(8)I Am
the Alpha and the Omega says the LORD God, who is and was and is
coming, the Almighty.
Here we get the typical introduction or address to
a letter. Think of how you address a formal letter – you put your
name and address up in the corner, and then you write “to whom it
may concern” or whatever. This is the equivalent of that. And
then you have a giving of grace and peace, which is standard... but
then it goes a bit odd. “Seven” starts showing up, over and over
again.
So, I will claim that Revelation a book of patterns,
playing off of the patterns found in Scripture. So, what does
“seven” mean in the Scriptures? Seven ends up being the number
of perfection, completion. It's the seven days of creation – it's
God's got everything well in hand and under control and man hasn't
messed it up. It's the number of freedom, for every seven years you
set your slaves free (Exodus 21:2) and after 7 cycles of 7 years you
have the Jubliee (Leviticus 25). It's forgiving your brother not
just seven times but seventy time seven times unto a massive Jubilee.
So while John is writing to seven specific churches, in
so doing what he writes applies to all churches – and you'll fit
into this pattern somehow. And it's all good – everything is in
order – the seven churches are here on earth and yet they are in
the Spirit before the throne (more on “in the Spirit” in Rev
1:10) – the Church on earth and all the company of heaven joined in
worship. Everything is profoundly okay and profoundly beyond just
what we normally see here.
And then you have the description of Jesus – who Is
and Was and is Coming – past and present and future all wrapped up
together. It doesn't matter where in the timeline, where in Chronos
you go, what part of the season you are at – Christ is there for
you, for your good, and He is with you, and He gives you grace and
peace. Again, it is all good in Him, for He has won us salvation.
And this is so wondrous that John breaks out into song.
Or at least poetry. Verse 7 is poetic – and when I come across
poetry in the text, I'll try to translate it poetically. I'll be a
bit looser, I'll try to keep the word order (because Greek poetry
loved to play with word order) – but translating poetry as good
poetry is hard. And John has this poetic image of the last day, but
then it goes back to Christ, who is and was and is coming, because it
all ends and moves and reaches its completion in Him. And knowing
that, we're ready for the story.
Part 2 –
Revelation 1:9-3:22 – The Seven Letters
Revelation
1:9-16 – I, John, your brother and partner in the
tribulation
and in the kingdom and waiting
in Jesus, happened to be on the island called Patmos on account of
the word of God and the witness of Jesus. (10) I happened to be in
the spirit on the LORD's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like
a trumpet (11) saying, “That which you see write in a book and send
it to the seven churches, to Epheseus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum
and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
And I turned to see the voice which was speaking
to me, and turning I saw seven golden lampstands, (13) and in the
middle of the lampstands One like a son of man clothed in a full
robe
and encircled around his chest with a golden sash. (14) And on His
head the hairs were white - wool white, snow white – and His eyes
were like a flame of fire (15) and his feet were like bronze that has
just come out of a furnace, and His voice was like the voice of a
raging flood.
(16) And He had in His right hand seven stars and from His mouth a
keen double-edged
sword came, and His face was like the sun shining in its power.
So, John gives us the setting for the story. First,
there's John. And who is John? He describes himself not with titles
of power or authority, but rather as our brother and our partner in
the tribulation. This is important. John isn't elevating himself or
playing up his importance (even though he's an Apostle). Rather,
we're in the same boat as John. And that's not a pretty boat –
it's tribulation. John is in exile, but you, dear Christian, face
the same tribulation in your own life in this world. If you are in
the sinful world, you are part of the tribulation, whether you are in
Patmos in 95AD or ancient Israel or in Herscher in the 21st
Century.
Well, John's on Patmos one Sunday, and he's “in
the Spirit” meaning he's at church, at worship. And then things
get... strange. He hears a voice telling him to write letters to
seven churches and John turns around and sees... what?
Well, John sees Jesus, but this is a weird Jesus, isn't
it? I mean, we don't tend to have a stained glass window that looks
like this, right? Here's how I think you can understand what John
sees – He sees all the appearances of Jesus from the entire Old
Testament played out at the same time, all overlapped and on Jesus
all at the same time. Let's consider some of these images.
First,
the lampstands. This is Church stuff – this is old Jewish Menorah
up to our candles by the altar. This is the place of worship – and
in midst of that place of worship is a Voice – is Christ. Christ
in the midst of His Church – for wherever two or three are
gathered, there is He is. And He is “like a son of man” - which
shows up all over the place in the Old Testament for the Messiah –
He is God yet come as a Man to win salvation and redemption. And His
robe is full, and it's a sash worn by one at Peace, not a warrior (if
you fight, you gird your loins – you wrap up your robe around your
waist so you can run). And His hair is white like a lamb, like snow
(think of Isaiah 1:18), and his eyes are like the Burning Bush from
Exodus, and He looks like He just stepped out of the fiery furnace
from when He was there with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendnego from
Daniel 3, and His voice is the flood, the Red Sea, and the whole
church is in His hands and from His mouth His Word of Law and Gospel,
threat and promise coming forth, and it's the transfiguration, it's
the Light of Light right there in front of John. It's the Scriptural
images and “theophanies” (the Old Testament “appearances of
God”) all there at one time all rolled up together.
Do you
get a sense of the rush of images. Imagine taking the whole of the
Old Testament and the Gospels just condensing them and trying to
describe it. That's what John sees. He sees the Word of God
incarnate in all His Word-ness. And it is an overwhelming, as we
hear next.
Revelation 1:17-20 – And when I saw Him, I
fell at His feet like a dead man, and He put His right hand on me
saying, “Fear not! I AM the First and the Last, (18) the Living
[One], and I died but, behold, I Live forever, and I have the keys
of death and of Hades. (19) Write therefore that which you see and
that which is and that which is to happen after this. (20) The
mystery
of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand and the seven
golden lampstands – the seven stars are the “angels”
of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven
churches.
First things first – and this is key for
understanding the entire book. The first words out of Jesus' mouth
when John actually sees Him are, “Fear Not!” The purpose of
Christ's revelation in this book is not to terrify or frighten, but
to remove fear. And how is fear removed? Well, the next thing Jesus
says is “I AM” - and if you noted, I capitalized “AM” because
this phrase is the Greek way of translating the Divine Name from
Hebrew. Way back in Exodus, the LORD identified Himself as “I AM”
- the One who is. And Hebrew completely stopped using the 1st
person being verb in their language. Even in modern Hebrew, you
literally never say “I am”. And in Greek you don't need to say
“I am” with two words – you can either just say “I” or just
say “am” - you don't need both. Jesus uses both, and this is
intentional – and this is something John recorded throughout His
Gospel. Do not fear – Jesus is true God and He is here.
We look at that and nod, but we forget how utterly
salvific that language is. Since Genesis 3 human beings freaked out
in the presence of God. If the LORD came for you, it probably meant
you were dead – this is why John falls as dead. And that's the
right and wise to do – the LORD kills sinners... but He also raises
them. There is death and resurrection – dying and then living.
And Jesus is in charge of this, and it is for your benefit.
Then we have the instruction to write the letters to
seven churches in Asia Minor. So let's consider what's going on
here. (On the next page there will be a map to give us some
context.) John had been living in Ephesus, which was the major port
town and hub of the area. And for at least two decades, closer to
three, he had been the sole surviving Apostle. So basically everyone
in the area (and to a lesser extent the rest of the Mediterranean)
would come to Ephesus and see John. John was literally much more
important than the Papacy in Rome, or even the later places in Church
History that become vitally important, like Antioch or Alexandria.
And while other places had been used to being post-apostolic for a
generation, Asia wasn't. They had John – and now they don't. So
these seven letters are given to be letters to the Churches there and
their “angels” - their messengers – or in other words, their
pastor.
So what these letters will do is go out to the
biggest churches in the area, and they will deal with issues that end
up being commonly faced by the entire area. Whatever situation you
yourself were in at your Church, you could probably tie in to what is
being described in these churches. Chapters 2 and 3 are the seven
letters, so let's look at them.
Revelation 2:1-7 – To the angel of the
church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who has the rule of the
seven stars in His right hand, who wanders amongst the seven
lampstands of gold says. (2) I think on
your works, your labors, your endurance,
and that you are not able to bear the wicked, how you have tested
those people calling themselves apostles and aren't, and you found
them fakes.
(3) You have endurance, you bear up for My Name's sake, and you have
not fainted. (4) But I am against you, for your first love you have
dismissed.
(5) Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and
your first works do again! And if not, I will come and remove your
lampstand from its place, should you not repent. (6) But you have
this, that you hate the works of the Nicolatians, which I also hate.
(7) He who has ears, let him hear that which the Spirit says to the
churches. To the victor I will give them the tree of life to eat of,
which is in the paradise of God.
Many things seem to be going well in Ephesus. They are
hard working, and they keep at their labors, and they endure – they
haven't given up. They are zealous to spot out false teachers and
they refuse to listen to them. However, Jesus uses an interesting
word up front. He says that He “thinks on” - He literally has an
“idea” about all these things that they have done. In Greek
there are two types of knowledge – there is the one that means you
are directly involved and experiencing (gnosis) and there is one that
expresses that you have an idea – you know but from mere
observation or having heard of something. I'd guess this usage comes
up here (and throughout the seven letters) because that word “gnosis”
became the by-word for all sorts of Heresies that we end up calling
“Gnosticism” today. It's like there's a pivot away from that
word. That, or the point is that these actions are ones where they
are pulling away from Christ and more off on their own – I'm not
exactly sure here – but it's the standard intro in all these
letters.
However, while the folks there are zealous against
heresy, there is a problem. They have forgotten forgiveness. Verse
4 is a beautiful play on words. That word “dismissed” is a
common forgiveness word – it means to send away, to remove. This
is the word “forgive” in the Lord's Prayer – the tresspasses
are no longer on us, they are sent away – as far as the east is
from the west. And what's the problem in Ephesus – they've sent
away love. They've given up on forgiveness.
Yes, zeal for doing good is important. Yes, it's
important to oppose wicked teachers and cults. The Nicolatians were
bad, bad folks. The common understanding is that Nicolas was one of
the first seven deacons from Acts 6, but as time passed he basically
started allowing for open and wild sexual escapades, with later
followers incorporating the various forms of fertility worship that
was around, figuring that the body doesn't really matter, but rather
just being Spiritual. That's bad – that needs to be opposed – but
not in such a way that you throw out forgiveness. If you forget
forgiveness, you are no more a church than the Nicolatians are.
This is an important thing to remember, especially as
we enter upon more libertine times in our culture and there are
denominations that are becoming not merely more and more open to
sexual deviancy but actually praising it. The danger for us is that
we can over-react against this error and throw ourselves into the
opposite ditch – defining ourselves by our own purity and
righteousness. When that happens, we are no longer defining
ourselves by Christ and His own righteousness, but rather according
to our own works. That's not living in Christ and His forgiveness.
Where there is no forgiveness, there the Church doesn't exist – and
this is true both when you stop treating sin as something that needs
forgiveness (like the Nicolatians and so many liberals today) or when
you refuse to forgive in fear of encouraging or condoning sin.
Revelation 2:8-11 – And to the angel of
the Church in Smyrna write: This is what He who is the First and the
Last, the One who died and lived says. (9) I think on your
tribulation and your poverty
(but you are rich), and the blasphemy against you from those who say
they are Jews but actually are a synagogue of Satan. (10) Do not
fear that which you are about to suffer.
For behold, the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison so as
to test you, and you will have tribulation for ten days. [Let you]
Be faithful
unto death and I will give you the crown of life. (11) He who has
ears let him hear what the Spirit speaks to the churches. The ones
who are victors
will never
be wronged
by the second death.
Bad times are coming for Smyrna. They are in the midst
of tribulation – which is trouble that is foisted upon you by
another. Things are getting stirred up by the Jewish folks in town.
And there's a lot of language here that seems to us to be incredibly
harsh. However, lets understand what is going on. In John 16:2
Jesus notes that the day is coming when the disciples will be “put
out of the synagogues.” Remember that Judaism was a
legally protected religion in the Roman Empire, and they were exempt
from many of the pagan rites and requirements. They were basically
the only legal monotheistic religion. When Jewish folks point to
Christians and say, “they are not Jews, they are not part of our
synagogue” that opened up the Christians to persecution.
This is what is going to happen in Smyrna. And it also
looks like there are financial powerplays at work as well (since they
are poor). It's going to be a grave matter of injustice. However,
Jesus notes a few things. First – they are being blasphemed. We
don't generally think of Christians as being blasphemed, but they are
baptized. They are tied to Christ – and the blasphemy against
Jesus is washing up on them. And Satan and the Devil are at work,
and things will be bad, and the Devil will try to break you by this
tribulation. Jesus is blunt.
But then there is a beautiful phrase. That phrase “be
faithful” is a command, but it's not a command with the normal
being verb. It's the verb that means be-become-happen... the same
verb that is used in “Genesis” - as in “Let there be....”
This isn't let there be, it's let you be. This is a Word of God that
creates the faithfulness that they will need – Jesus gives the
faith and then he gives the crown.
And at the very end there's a nice little interplay.
Often that last line gets translated as “will never be hurt by the
second death”, but the word there actually is to suffer injustice.
Now, if you are suffering injustice you are being hurt, so that's a
fine translation, but do you see the whole flow of the letter. Over
and over the Symrneans are being treated unjustly and abused, even to
the point of being imprisoned and possibly death – this is actually
victory. You'll not face injustice in the life to come, you'll not
be wrongly imprisoned by God in hell – instead you will have life
because you are already rich in Christ.
Revelation 2:12-17 – And to the angel of
the Church in Pergamum write: This is what the One having the sharp,
two-edged sword says. (13) I think on where you set down your home,
where the throne of Satan is, yet you hold fast
to My name, and do not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas My
faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan sets his
home. (14) But I have against you a few things – that you have
there some who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak
to cast
a stumbling block
before the children of Israel, so that they might eat idol-sacrificed
food and engage in pornographic acts. (15) Likewise you have some
of you who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolatians. (16)
Therefore repent! If not, I will come swiftly to you and wage war
against them with the sword of My mouth. (17) He who has ears, let
him hear what the Spirit says to the Church. To the victor I will
give of the hidden manna, and I will give a white [election] pebble,
and upon this pebble is a new name written which no one knows except
the one who receives it.
Pergamum was a place where, in addition to many pagan
shrines, there was a strong imperial cult. While Christians would
debate and argue with the general pagans, it was the Imperial Cult
that would lead to persecution. If there was a sacrifice to the
Genius of the Emperor, you HAD to sacrifice or else. So these were
apparently going on in Pergamum relatively often – and the Church
there wasn't caving. That's a good thing. However, while they
didn't cave, they did let things go a bit loosy-goosey. We've
already heard about the Nicolatians elsewhere, but here you have this
reference to Balaam. Balaam was a prophet who basically let his
prophecy be sold to King Balak – at the King's request he was going
to prophecy (falsely) against the Israelites – and then you have
the donkey stopping him, and so on and so forth. So Balaam becomes
the emblem of people who cozy-up to the rich and powerful and join in
the reindeer games that they have no business playing in. The
warning is that if these folks don't stop – the sword will come
(say, what did the Balaam's donkey see that Balaam hadn't?).
But there is a positive image to go alongside of all
this. If you eschew the political powers that be, that doesn't mean
you are left bereft of anything good. There is the reference to
“hidden manna” - which played off the idea that when the Messiah
would come there would be feasting (and also is tied to the Lord's
Supper). Moreover there is the idea of the white pebble. This is a
technical word in Greek, and it involves voting and invitations.
When you voted, you wrote the name of whom you were voting for onto a
pebble (or picked a pebble with the name) and dropped it in the
bucket. Or, if it were a up/down vote on a person, a white pebble
was approval but a black pebble was censure. Also, if you were
invited to a feast, your admission “ticket” would be a pebble
with your name on it. So this term deals with election and with
invitation and the whole point of all this imagery is that you don't
miss out on any power or parties for being a Christian – you are
part of the eternal feast with the Messiah, which is far better than
any party in Pergamum, so remember that.
Revelation 2:18-29 – And to the angel of
the Church in Thyatira write: This is what the Son of God, who has
eyes like a flame of fire, and who has feed like burnished bronze
says. (19) I think on your works, your love, your faith, your
righteousness, and your endurance, and how your latter works are
greater than your first. (20) But this I have against you, that you
put up with
that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and
seduces My servants unto pornographic acts and to eat idol-sacrificed
food. (21) I have given her time so that she might repent, but she
does not want to repent of her works. (22) Behold! I cast her into
[a sick] bed,
and those who were commuting adultery with her I throw into great
tribulation, unless they repent of her works. (23) And her children I
will kill with death, and all the churches will know that I AM the
One who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you
according to your works.
(24) But
to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who
have not known the deep things of Satan (as they call it), I do not
cast upon you any other burden. (25) But keep holding fast to what
you have already until I come. (26) And the Victor, the one who
clings until the end to My works, I will give him authority over the
nations, (27) and he will rule them with an iron rod, as when the
potter's vessels are shattered, (28) just as I received from My
Father, and I will give to him the morning star. (29) The one having
ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.
Here Jesus presents Himself as one having power and
might – a reminder of His great strength and deliverance. This is
the type of image you get in Daniel. And why does Jesus show forth
His power and might? Because some of the folks in Thyatira are in
need of what folks in Oklahoma would call a “come to Jesus
meeting.” Because while by in large the congregation has held up
pretty well and been steady Eddie – some of them have fallen off
the deep end and hard.
We are introduced to a gal named Jezebel here – and
we actually don't know if this is this person's real name. It
probably isn't – it's probably a reference to queen Jezebel from 1
Kings. And what was Jezebel famous for? Well, this Jezebel is doing
the same stuff – basically running a sex cult on the side. This
sounds utterly strange to us – but it shouldn't. First of all,
there are plenty of sex scandals in the Church even to this day. But
more than that, remember that the Church is always tempted to act
like the society around them (we see this even today with rock
concert churches, etc) – and the pagans loved their sex cults.
That's what Ba'al worship was back in the day, and even a lot of the
neo-pagan stuff today leans that way. (At the risk of an
overstatement – all pagan religions become either sex cults or
death cults – or both.) And the veneer that was plastered over
this was that this was a way to understand the “deep things” of
Satan and thus how to resist temptation.
But Jesus has a certain sense of humor or irony about
sin and punishment. Since this Jezebel was seducing folks into her
bed, Jesus will cast her into to bed – but with illness. You like
to go to bed, alright, I'll put you in bed, Jezebel. And the folks
who were playing around – you want to know the deep things of
Satan, I'll let Satan play with you rather harshly – how do you
like the m apples? And the contrast that is given is that those who
remain faithful will reign, that they will not be broken by the world
but they will rule over and share in Christ's victory over the world.
While evil is now to be endured, there will come a time when it is
defeated.
Revelation
3:1-6 – And to the angel of the Church in Sardis write: This is
what the one having the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars
says. I think on your works, that you are said
to be alive, but you are dead. (2) Be watchful, and strengthen up
the remaining, which are about to die, for I have not found your
works to be overflowing before My God. (3) Remember what you have
received and heard – keep it and repent. If you will not keep
watch, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when
I will. (4) But you have a few names in Sardis which have not soiled
their garments, and they will walk around
with me in white, for they are worthy.(5) The ones who are victors
will be be covered
with white garments, and I will never blot out their name from the
book of life, and I will confess their name before the face of My
Father and before the the faces of His angels. (6) The one having
ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.
Sardis is in a bad shape. They have kept up
appearances, but in reality many of them have lost the faith. Things
are dying. The solution – the call to be watchful. This is
reminiscent of Matthew 25 and the wise and foolish virgins. Their
attention, their focus upon Christ and the Gospel has wavered, and
they've cut themselves off from forgiveness. So the call goes out to
pay attention to Christ and His Word and to cling to it again –
because it is His Word of life that gives the white garment and makes
it white as snow, etc. This also plays off of Matthew 10 where there
is the focus on confessing Christ before men and He will confess you
before His Father in heaven. Yet even with things going poorly,
there still is a remnant that is faithful remaining in Sardis, and
they are still cared for by Christ.
Revelation
3:7-13 – And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write:
This is what the Holy One, the True One, the One having the key of
David, who opens and no one shuts, and closes and no one opens, says:
(8) I think on your works – behold I have given you an open door,
which no one is able to shut – you have little power, yet you have
kept my word and not denied My name. (9) Behold, I will give those of
the synagogue of Satan, those saying that they are Jews and are not
but rather are false, behold I will make them come and worship
before your feet, and they will know that I have loved you. (10) As
you have kept My word with endurance, I too will keep you from the
hour of trial which is about to come upon the whole world
and all those who set down their home upon the earth. (11) I am
coming swiftly. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may take
the crown from you. (12) I will make the victors pillars in the
temple of My God, and he will never depart from it, and I will upon
Him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the new
Jerusalem which comes down from heaven from My God, and My new Name.
(13) The one having ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
Churches.
The idea of a key is a common one in the Scriptures –
in fact, it's the image that is used of the authority to forgive sins
(or to bind sins upon the unrepentant). And the folks of
Philadelphia are weak and they are getting kicked, especially by the
Jewish community. However, they have clung to Jesus, the Word of God
and the Key of David, and what will happen? Jesus will bring some of
their tormentors to faith, and they will worship together. The
mockers will cease their mocking and instead seek to learn of Christ
from them. And there's a beautiful little interplay – no one will
take their “Crown” - which is the word “Stephanos” or
Stephen. Say, where does the name Stephen come up in the New
Testament? They won't be stoning Stephen in Philadelphia – they
will hear and believe. And the true temple of God, the true
Jerusalem will be revealed, and folks will be baptized and believe
and have new life. Why? Because folks are focused upon the Word
instead of their own power – and that's just what the Word of God
does.
Revelation
3:14-22 – And to the angel of the Church in Laodicea write: This
is what the Amen, the Witness, the Faithful One, and the Turth, the
Beginning of God's creation says: (15) I think on your works, how you
are neither chilled nor hot. I'd rather that you were chilled or
boiled. (16) Thus, since you are lukewarm and not chilled or hot, I
will vomit
you from my mouth. (17) For you say, “I am rich and I have been
filled and I have no needs,” and you have no idea that you are
wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked. (18) I suggest that you buy from Me
gold tested in fire so that you may be rich, and white garments that
you may be covered (and that the shame of your nakedness might not be
revealed), and anoint your eyes with paste so that you may see. (19)
As many as I love I lecture
and I “school”
- therefore be zealous and repent. (20) Behold I stand at the door
and I knock. Whenever someone hears my voice and opens the door, I
will come on in to him and dine with him and he with Me. (21) To the
one who victors I will give him to sit with me on My throne, even as
I have victored and sat with My Father on His throne. (22) The one
having ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.
My
favorite sermon at the Seminary began with Dr. Timothy Quill walking
into the pulpit and saying, “Lukewarm Christians make Jesus want to
vomit.” And it went on from there. And that really is the point
of this passage. The people in Laodicea are just... blah. They
aren't hot and worked up, they aren't cold and ready to be worked
upon. They aren't piping hot coffee or iced coffee – they are room
temperature. And why are they so indifferent? Because they are
falsely comfortable. They don't see their lack, nor do they see the
riches of what they have in Christ.
So Jesus is going to lecture them – and the word is
going to shake them up. Jesus is going to show them reality, He is
going to teach them. And if anyone hears what He teaches – they
will get to eat. Note how we move to feasting – no more throwing
up lukewarm stuff. Instead the heavenly feast and sitting on eternal
thrones and the like.
So those are the Seven Churches and where they are at.
And I would say that their situations are “typical” - they are
the types of situations that any congregation might find themselves
in. They are emblematic of what the Church faces and will face until
Christ comes again. Persecution and false doctrine and the allure of
wealth and power and sometimes quiet faithfulness. And yet, all the
Churches are to hear all of what it said. Situations can change.
And now there is the Revelation for all of them.
Part
3 – The Heavenly Sanctuary and Divine Throne (Chapters 4 and 5)
Revelation
4:1-6a – After this I looked, and behold a door was opened in
heaven, a the first voice that I heard was like a trumpet talking
with me saying, “Come up here, and I will point out
that which is necessary to happen
behind
this. (2) Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was
set down in heaven, and upon the throne Someone was sitting, (3) and
the Sitting One looked like a gem of Jasper and Sardine/Carnelian,
and there was a rainbow
encircling the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald. (4)
And encircling the throne were 24 other thrones, and upon the thrones
were 24 presbyters
sitting being covered in white garments, and upon their heads were
crowns of gold. (5) and from the throne shot lightings and the voices
of thunder, and seven lamps were burning before the throne, which are
the seven spirits of God, (6a) and before the throne was a sea of
glass, like crystal...
Having
written the seven letters to the seven Churches, John then ends up
getting a vision of the reality of the presence of God – of
“heaven” - and I will say that this is “heaven” if we
understand heaven not as some other place way off there, but heaven
is the presence of God. Heaven is wherever Jesus is. And this shows
up in the vision, because the seven churches who just got the letters
are there – the seven lamps are there before the throne. And the
image itself is like that of a church – we today don't recognize
what John is describing as a Church – but it is. Today we think of
the Church has having in front an altar – that's the front – but
back in the day in front of the altar there would be a chair. In
fact, if you go to a “cathedral” there will be a chair up front –
that's what a cathera is – a chair. And that is the bishop's
chair, where he presides from. And assisting the bishop would be
priests (called Presbyters in NT parlance) surrounding him.
So
John was at Church on Patmos, and he gets a vision and is instructed
to write to the seven churches, and then he looks up and he sees THE
CHURCH and he is there and the seven churches are there. And the
words describing this have a pace to them, they come out like a
torrent. And this is why I think it's important to note how I
translate the end of verse 1 - “what is necessary to happen behind
this.” The phrase is “meta tauta” - which can mean “after
this” (as at the beginning of verse 1) implying temporal passage,
but meta can also mean to be with, or behind. And this is how I end
up reading this vision – it's stuff that is “Meta” - as in the
often unseen reality that is going on behind things, rather than
following after them temporally.
And
what is the great reality going on behind the simple, humdrum reality
that John sees in his every day life? The Church of God – full and
complete. You have the throne of God, and around the throne you have
24 Presbyters. And what is 24? It is 12 and 12 – it's the 12
tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles – it is the Old Testament
Church and the New Testament Church both combined, both in reality
the same thing. And yes, John is an Apostle, so he sees himself –
but wait – there's more, and it's still coming out in a rush.
Revelation
4:6b-11 – And in the midst of the throne and around the throne
were four living creatures
having eyes in front and behind, (7) and the first living creature
was like a lion, and the second living creature was like a young
bull, and the third had the face of a man, and the fourth was like an
eagle in flight. (8) And the four living creatures, each of them had
six wings encircling them, and they were full of eyes, and they
never stopped for both day and night they were saying, “Holy! Holy!
Holy! LORD God Almighty, the One who was and is and is coming! (9)
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and
'thanksgiving'
to the One seated upon the throne, to the One who Lives to the ages
of ages, (10) fall down the 24 presbyters before the One that sits on
the throne and they worship the One who lives to the ages of ages,
and they cast their crowns before the throne saying, (11) “Worthy
are You, LORD and our God, to receive the Glory and the Honor and the
Power, for You created all things, and through Your Will they are and
were created.”
Again,
we have a picture of worship.
The four living
creatures are what Ezekiel sees – they are angels, cherubs – the
beings that surround the throne. They are what Isaiah hears in
Isaiah 6. And basically they've got every corner covered (think
about the four corners of the globe – as we even say) and they see
in every direction – and the angels who have the whole world
covered praise God. The four living creatures sometimes get tied
into the Gospel writers (as there are four of them) – and there is
a tie because they are proclaiming eternally what God has done. But
again, this is taking up a giant amount of overlap from the Old
Testament and New and all combined in one big vision of united
worship.
I think it is important for us today to remember this
unity between old and new. Age has somewhat jaded the Church, to
where we think of Israel being so long ago, so old, so distant from
us. In fact, when I did a “Church History” study, I started it
at Acts. That's not quite accurate. The Church starts in the
Garden, and Adam and Noah and Abraham and David and Isaiah are are
part and parcel of the very same Christian (catholic) and Apostolic
Church that we are part of. Everything, Old or New, drives to the
worship of the One True God.
Revelation
5:1-5 – And I saw in the right hand of the One seated upon the
throne a Book
written both inside and outside, having been sealed with seven seals.
(2) And I saw a strong angel preaching
in a great voice, “Who is worthy to open the Book and to loosen the
seals?” (3) And no one was able in heaven or on earth nor under the
earth to open the Book or to look upon it. (4) And I wept much
because no one worthy was found to open the book or to look upon it.
(5) And of the the elders said to me, “Do not cry. Behold!
Victored has the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Key of David, to
open the Book and its seven scrolls!”
We are people of the Word. The Word of God is
paramount to how we live and operate. And here we see the Book, the
Bible – the full and complete and everything that is needed Word.
And it's sealed, it's shut. And no one on earth is worthy enough to
open it and understand it. But there is One – Christ Jesus the
LORD. And you get classic titles – the Lion of Judah, the Key of
David (that shows up in O Come, O Come Emmanuel) – and He is worthy
and able to open the Word of God. To make the Word, the plan of
salvation accessible.
You cannot understand the Scriptures apart from Jesus.
This is one of the main points of the Gospel – that Jesus takes the
Word and reveals what it truly is, reveals the plan of salvation.
How many times does Jesus come across people who don't understand the
Scriptures? Luke 24:44-47 drives home this point. Unless
Jesus reveals to you that the Scriptures are all about Him and how He
wins salvation, you won't understand. Whenever there is any
understanding in the Scriptures, that is something that is worked in
us by God, not a result of our own wisdom, understanding, or worth.
And it's fascinating that John weeps here – and the weeping is over
the reality that the Word seemingly would never be understood – in
the midst of this vision John understands that the scriptures being
not understood would be an unimaginable tragedy. But Jesus is the
key that opens the Scripture. Hence, if someone is dealing with the
Scriptures and they don't end up talking about Jesus – you can know
quickly that they are off base.
Revelation
5:6-10 – And I saw in the middle of the throne and the four
living creatures and in the middle of the elders a Lamb standing
as having been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are
the seven spirits of God sent
into all the earth. (7) And He came and took from the right hand of
the One sitting upon the throne. (8) And when He had taken the
book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell on their faces
before the Lamb, each of them having harps and golden vials
full of the aromas
of worship, which are the prayers of the saints. (9)And they sang a
new ode saying:
Worthy
are You to take the book
And to
open its seals,
For you
were slain and have redeemed to God blood Your Blood
[people]
of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
(10) and
made them to our God kings and priests,
And they shall reign upon
the earth.
And
Jesus shows up – and He is here the Lamb who was slain. But it is
important to note that He is slain but standing – which doesn't
happen. When you are slain, you fall down. Not Jesus – He is
slain, but He stands again. And as John sees Jesus, He sees Jesus in
heaven, but Jesus also directly connected – seeing, spiriting –
the seven Churches that he had just written to – this profound
connection between heaven and earth. Indeed, the central folks of
heaven fall down, and there's worship – music and smell – but the
smell is actually the prayers of God's people – again, heaven and
earth connected in a way most wondrous.
A moment here to speak about “the Lamb.” The Lamb
was the chief animal of sacrifice in the Old Testament. It was the
sacred meal of the Passover (the feast of deliverance from sin and
bondage) – it was used in the rites of Atonement. It would take up
and bear the sins of the people. Salvific things happened with the
Lamb – it spares Isaac's life and thus the life of all the people
of Israel. But really, and this is key, all those lambs were just
precursors and preparations for the Lamb, Christ Jesus, who is the
worthy One to open up the Book.
Revelation
5:11-14 – And I looked, and heard the voice of many angels
encircling the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and
their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, (12)
saying with a great voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to
receive the power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and
glory and blessing.” (13) And all creatures which are in heaven
and upon the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that
are in them, I heard them saying, “To the One seated upon the
throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and power to
the ages of ages!” And the four living ones said, “Amen,” and
the elders fell down and worshiped.
“Worth” is an interesting thing, and perhaps we
should speak to it now. Much of discussion in theology revolves
around people trying to prove or establish their own worth. Or even
the unworthiness of others. We want to assign a value, a measure of
worth upon ourselves and everyone around us (where hopefully we are
worth more than them). Revelation shoots down that game. It's not a
matter of comparing our worth to the guy next to me, or increasing my
own worthiness to where I can get to the next level of whatever.
There is One who is worthy. Jesus. The Lamb. That's it. And all
power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and
blessing are His. Period. And if you are to receive any of those
things, it's not because of you and your worth – it will simply and
only be a gift from the Lamb. It all centers around Christ Jesus.
This is really hard for us to accept, because it
doesn't let us have any control. It doesn't provide a way for us to
gain more control. It just... is. But it's actually good that it is
this way. If things were up to me, I'd mess them up in the
heartbeat. But as a spoiler alert – the Lamb who is worthy is
going to do everything just as it needs to be done, and He'll do it
for your good.
Part
4 – The Seven Seals – Revelation 6-8:5
And
now we get to the really strange stuff. The next section of
Revelation deals with the opening of the seals – the story of
history playing out. And again, there is debate as to when this
happens – is this speaking to the future of the end times, or is
this the history of the world playing out from the perspective of
eternity? I tend towards the latter, big view of history approach,
and that's what we will consider. Of course, as there is nothing new
under the sun, this also is a description of what we should expect
until the end.
Revelation
6:1-8 – And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven scrolls,
and I heard one of the four living creatures speaking with a voice as
of thunder saying, “Come.” (2) And I saw, behold a white horse,
and the one seated upon it had a bow, and he was given a crown, and
he went forth victoring to victor (winning to win, conquering to
conquer).
(3)
And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living
creature saying, “Come.” (4) And there came another horse –
fire red
– and the one seated upon was given to take away peace from the
earth, so that people should butcher
each other, and he was given a great executioner's sword.
(5) And
when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature
saying, “Come.” And I saw, behold, a black horse, and the one
sitting upon it had a pair of scales
in his hands. (6) And I heard a voice from the midst of the four
living creatures saying, “A measure
of wheat for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius,
but do no injustice to the oil and wine.
(7) And when He opened
the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature
saying, “Come.” (8) And I saw, behold, a sickly-green
horse, and the one sitting upon it was Death, and Hades followed with
him. And authority was given to him over a fourth of the earth, to
kill with the sword and with scarcity and with death and by the
beasts of the earth.
So
here we get the image of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Now,
note – that isn't a title they are given in the Scriptures – it's
just that literally in Revelation (Apocalypse in Greek) there are
these four horsemen given. So let's ponder briefly what the idea of
a horseman implies. These are warrior figures – they are mounted
soldiers – and the idea is that they are stronger and faster than
you. You might be able to out run a heavily armored infantry man
(especially if you abandon all your stuff), but you can't outrun a
horse. If you want a modern parallel – think of these as being
four tanks or even jet fighters– if they into your town, you're in
trouble and you're not getting away. So these are images of things
that befall all the earth and that are inescapable.
So first we have the white horse and it's rider – a
Conqueror. A “Victor”. While it's good to see a Victor if he's
on your side, if he's defeating you, then it's not that great. And
defeat comes, and in this life we get the tar kicked out of us.
There are always earthly powers that mess us with. And the second is
the Red horse – this is violence and bloodshed – war and violence
rise up in every generation. The third is the Black Horse – often
called famine. There are times there just isn't enough – the earth
(that word for black is the color of loamy dirt) fails to produce,
and we suffer. And then the final horse is the... well, we are used
to saying “Pale” today – but we miss the connection. The color
that is given is the color of fear and dread – one of the lines
from Homer is “sickly green fear grabbed at their entrails.” And
we (and the Romans) thought of fear making us turn pale – so that's
what this is – the color draining from your face – because here
is Death with its “pallor” (related to pale). And there's this
seemingly randomly striking of death in a variety of ways.
This is what the reality of the fall looks like. And
there's four of them – they cover the world (four ends up being a
number about covering the world – we still call about every corner
of the globe). Throughout the whole world these terrors and trials
come. That is just the way it is.
One final note – it's fascinating translating this,
because there is a repetitive pattern – but John doesn't keep the
pattern. If you note, with the second horse there's no “I saw,
behold”. If you were just writing a work of literature in the
Ancient world, this would be a terrible mistake – you don't break
the rhetoric like that. However, John's not writing or retorting –
he's simply reacting in real time to what he sees. This has a really
breathless, rushed feel to it, as though he doesn't have time to
properly compose his thoughts.
Revelation
6:9-11 – And when He opened the fifth
seal, I saw under the altar the 'beings'
of those who were butchered on account of the Word of God and on
account of the witness
they made. (10) And they cried with a great voice saying, “How
long, O holy and true Despot,
until you judge and revenge our blood upon those who dwell upon the
earth?” (11) And a white robe was given to each of them, and it
was said unto them that they should rest for a little time, until
their fellow servants and brothers were filled and completed by those
who were to be killed as they were.
And
with the fifth seal we shift to seeing the saints who were martyred.
And where are they? They are under the altar – under the place of
sacrifice. They are the people of the Church who are suffering under
the Cross – and as they suffer they lament and cry out, “How
Long!” Now, that phrase “how long” should connect us to the
Psalms (consider Psalm 13) where that cry of “how long” is the
cry of the saints. And this is the pattern of life in the world –
the saints suffer. And we cry “how long?” And the answer is
interesting. We are given a white robe – think on baptism and
forgiveness – and we are told to be patient. Why? There are more
saints to come. The point and purpose of God allowing us to endure
this suffering, indeed, why He hasn't yet returned is precisely for
our brothers and sisters in the faith yet to come. And while we
often look for vengeance, God's first priority is to give forgiveness
and salvation. This is the way of life in the world for us in the
Church.
Revelation
6:12-17 – And I saw when He
opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun
became black as hairy sackcloth, and the whole moon became as blood,
(13) and the stars of the heavens fell upon the earth, like a fig
tree throwing its unripe
fruit to the ground having been shaken by a great wind, (14) and the
heavens vanished like a scroll suddenly rolling back up, and every
mountain and island was stirred
from its place. (15) And the kings of the earth and the men of
great standing and the military captains
and the rich and the powerful and every slave and every freeman hid
themselves in the caves and the rocks of the mountains, (16) saying
to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall upon us and hide us from the
face of the One seated upon the throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb, (17) for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is
able to stand?”
This
is a fascinating section. These are the signs of the end that Jesus
preaches about, and they are fantastically vivid. There's falling
stars, but falling with a thump, and space itself is rolled up like
an old projector screen going phhhpttttt and everything is mixed and
pulled out of its place. The order of God's creation – all the
efforts of the six days of creation – undone. And what is the
reaction? Everyone on the earth freaks out – even the rich and the
powerful. And remember, this is all language that Jesus Himself
preached dealing with the end times – but there's a wonderful
nuance and twist. They are afraid of the “wrath of the Lamb.”
Now, just pause there for a moment – does that phrase make any
sense? I could see being afraid of the wrath of a bull or a lion...
but a lamb? This is the irony – they do not know the Lamb.
Without faith and as sinful men, they know God only as a God of wrath
and terror – they do not know Him as the One who is Crucified to
win mercy and salvation
Revelation
7:1-8 – And with this
I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth,
holding the four winds of the earth, so that the wind would not
breeze
upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree. (2) And I saw
another angel going up from the rising of the sun, having a seal of
the living God, and he cried with a great voice to the four angels
who had been given power to “wrong”
the land and the sea, (3) saying, “Do no wrong to the earth or sea
or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their
foreheads.” (4) And I heard the number
of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from each of the tribes of Israel.
(5)
from the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed.
from the tribe
of Ruben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
(6) from
the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali
12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
(7) from the
tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from
the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
(8) from the tribe of Zebulun
12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of
Benjamin 12,000.
And
here we have a major shift and change. There is this palpable sense
of impending doom – as though the whole world has held its breath
waiting for the destruction – then there's an interuption! It's
not time for destruction yet – we have to make sure the “sealed”
ones are safe. This itself is a profound idea – that God holds off
divine judgment against the wicked so as to keep His loved ones from
getting caught up (consider the parable of the wheat and tares).
And
so we have the sealing of the 12 tribes of Israel. And the numbers
here are wondrously symbolic. 144,000 is 12 x 12,000 – and 12,000
is 12 x 10^3. And yes, we get to do math because this is Math.
Remember that in Hebrew, they don't do -er and -est to modify (like
high, higher, highest) – they simply repeat something three times.
“Holy, Holy, Holy” is a Hebrew way of saying “Holiest” - and
the Holy-Holy-Holy One was seen by Isaiah where? In the Holy of
Holies (or the holier place). And ten is the number of completion –
we're a base ten counting system. So 12,000 is a way of saying the
full and complete amount... and it's the full and complete amount
from all the tribes.
Or is it? This listing differs from the way the 12
tribes inherited the land. In the land of Israel there was no tribe
of Joseph – his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim each inherited and we
accounted as a tribe. Also, Levi didn't inherit any land – they
were the priests, and were to be spread throughout all Israel – yet
they are on here. And the Tribe of Dan is left out. What's going
on? First things first – unlike most lists, Judah is put first.
This is the Tribe of the Messiah, the Kings, the Royal family. No
other leaders are allowed – so Ephraim produced the false kings of
the Northern Kingdom of Israel that opposed the Davidic Kings –
they have lost their name. Also, there will be right worship – so
the tribe of Levi is back in, and Dan is out. Dan was the tribe
notorious for idol worship – they were the worst of the Northern
Kingdom. So what you have here is way of saying that the full number
of Old Testament faithful are gathered and that things are restored
and right amongst them.
Revelation
7:9-12 –
And with this I saw, and
behold! A great crowd, which no one would be able to number, from
every ethnicity and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, wrapped with white robes, and having
palms in their hands, (10) and they were crying out with a lout voice
saying, “The Salvation unto our God who sits upon the throne and to
the Lamb!” (11) And all the angels were standing around the throne
and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell down
before the throne on their aces and worshiped God, (12) saying,
“Amen! The blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the
thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength unto our
God unto the ages of ages! Amen!
So
John was able to hear some Math before, but now we are beyond math.
This is the host arrayed in white – uncountable. So many you can't
even try to keep it nice and orderly and clean. And it is Palm
Sunday again, and the it is joy and celebration. And there's an
interesting way that their praise is given. A thing or attribute –
like Salvation or Power – is stated, and then it is said to belong
to God. We echo this in “Glory be to Thee, O LORD” in our
worship service. Everything is centered, everything is pinned upon
God Almighty. And this is why I like “with this” instead of
“after this” because here's the wonder. This is where you show
up. You are there in that throng, and you say these things that are
said right here. And we even say or sing them now sometimes in
Church in worship. This is the picture of our Saturday night worship
from eternity.
I hope you can get here some sense of overlap between
heaven and earth here. This is actually a central theme or idea of
Christian worship – that the divine service is where heaven and
earth meet. We get this is part via the timeless words that are
spoken, when we confess that we are worshiping with angels and
archangels. However, much of church architecture is (or at least
was) designed to help point to this mystery of heaven and earth
meeting together in worship. (If you are interested about a nice
lecturing tangent on Church architecture, we can go on one here.)
Revelation
7:13-17 – And
I was asked by one of the elders, who said to me, “Who are these
who have been wrapped in white robes and from where have they come?”
(14) And I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me,
“These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation, and they
have plunged
their robes and have whitened them in the blood of the Lamb. (15) On
account of this they are before the throne of God and worship
day and night in His dwelling place,
and the One sitting upon the throne shall dwell
with them. (16) They will no longer hunger, nor will they thirst,
nor will the sun fall upon them, nor any heat, (17) for the Lamb in
the midst of the throne will shepherd them, and He will 'way' them to
springs of living water, and God shall wipe away every tear from
their eyes.”
John gets asked a question – and this is a scene that
would be familiar to any student of the day. This is rabbinical
training, this is confirmation class. You ask questions of the
student to see how they answer. And John punts to the elder to
explain what the crowd is. The Crowd is the Church of all times and
all places. They are the Psalm 23 people and John 10 people who have
the LORD as their Shepherd; they are the ones who have known Him who
is the Way, the Truth, and the Life – who causes springs of living
water to well forth.
And this is all tied into worship. The reality that
John sees here, that he had written in His Gospel, it is unfolded in
worship. Plunging/washing and Blood – these are Churchy worshipy
terms. And the description is that of a church service – the
liturgy, the back and forth that we have already heard in Revelation
so far – that's all worship language. And it is the presence of
God to be with His people, which was the central point of worship in
the Old Testament under Moses and in the New Testament with the Word
and Sacraments. And this reality that we have now is shown to be
more real and more true than we could possibly imagine – real and
true before the Throne of God this moment and lasting unto eternity.
Verses 15-17 are often treated as song, for they are profound and
beautiful.
Revelation
8:1-5
- “And
when He had opened the seventh seal, there was a hush in heaven for
about half an hour. (2) And I saw seven angels who stand before the
face of God, and seven trumpets were given to them. (3) And another
angel came and stood upon the sacrificial altar having a
frankincense censer of gold, and much incense was given to him so
that He could give with with the prayers of all the saints upon the
golden sacrificial altar before the throne. (4) And the smoke of
the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the
angel in the presence of God. (5) And the angel took the censer and
filled it with the fire of the sacrificial altar and he threw it upon
the earth – and there were thunders, rumblings, flashes of
lighting, and earthquakes.
This is more worship imagery that we don't quite get as
much today. If I am being really persnicketty, I will hush people
before service if they are in the sanctuary. The old custom was that
things were silent before service so individual could pray quietly.
And things are prepared – the angels have their trumpets to sound
the notes of judgment, and the prayers are rising. This is the giant
pause before everything begins.
As a note – we under utilize silence in worship.
Part of this is just our day and age, for we live in a time of
constant and continual racket. How many of us constantly have music
or a TV on just for the background noise. We are a bit better about
it in the country – but we like to have noise. We don't handle
silence very well. But in worship silence was used as a time of
pondering, of reflecting. The hymnal instructs a few places of
silence – silence before confession, or in the midweek services a
brief silence after the reading of the lessons. Silence terrifies us
– so if I did that, we'd get nervous. But for the people there –
this was “be still and know that I am the LORD” and everything is
going to be profoundly alright.
Part 5 – The Second Scene: Seven Trumpets –
Revelation 8:6-11
And now we get a reset. Revelation really likes to
play around with numbers – and the most common number is “seven”.
We had the seven letters to the seven Churches to start, and then
once we get into John's heavenly vision there are seven different
scenes, seven different views of the Church from eternity. And while
I probably should have discussed this back at the start of Part 4,
I'm going to do so now, because as we get to this section, we're
really getting a reset. We are going to see the same thing we just
saw but from a different angle, a different perspective.
Here are the seven scenes:
1st – Seven Seals – Rev 6:1-8:5
(focusing on people)
2nd – Seven Trumpets – Rev
8:6-11 (focusing on creation messed with)
3rd – The
Unholy Trinity fight God – Rev 12-14 (Spiritual Warfare)
4th
– Seven bowls of wrath – Rev 15-16 (Plagues and refusal to
repent)
5th – The Prostitute and Babylon's defeat –
Rev 17-19 (Defeat of Evil)
6th – The Final Judgment
– Rev 20-21:8 (The Cross from Eternity)
7th – New
Jerusalem the Bride and the Marriage feast – Rev 21:9-end (Rest!)
Each of these ends up looking at the story of Creation
and Redemption from a different angle, and always highlighting
Christ's victory for you. So, with that said, let's see the view of
the impact of history upon creation from a heavenly perspective.
Revelation
8:6-13 – And
the seven angels having the seven trumpets got ready to blow their
trumpets. (7) And the first blew, and there was hail and fire mingled
with blood, and it was thrown upon the earth. And a third of the
earth was burned, and a third of the trees were burned, and a third
of all the green grass burned.
(8)
And the second angel blew, and something like a great burning
mountain fell into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, (9)
and a third of the creatures of the sea died, and a third of the
ships were ruined.
(10)
And the third angel blew, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing
like a torch, and it fell upon a third of the rivers and upon the
springs of water. (11) And the name of the star is Wormwood. And a
third of the waters become wormwood, and many people died because the
waters which had been made bitter.
(12)
And the fourth angel blew, and was smitted a third of the sun and a
third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that they would be
darkened a third, and a third of the day might be kept from shining,
and the night likewise.
(13) Then I saw, and I heard an eagle
crying with a loud voice as it flew overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to
those who dwell upon the earth at the sound of the remaining trumpets
that the three angels are about to blow!”
And once again we get a strange image of destruction
befalling the earth. And it's a terrifying image of the divine order
of creation being undone – of creation itself falling apart.
Remember, the story of Creation is a story of order – of everything
being put in its place. And what we see is disorder unleashed,
leading to destruction. With the first, fire and ice and blood all
mingle together – and those three should be kept separate. Land
and sea are to be separated, but mountains crash in the sea and
there's blood again. Heaven and earth bang together, and water is
ruined and embittered. And even the heavens are messed with, the
lights dimmed. And this is a dreadful thing.
I'd contend
that this is the fall depicted poetically. What happens when Adam
and Eve sin? All of creation is shaken and shattered. Whereas the
Seven Seals showed the history of the world in terms of personal
interactions and the horrible things we do to each other, these seven
trumpets go... bigger. This is creation itself. This is (as we will
see) all things visible and invisible shaken. And this is the
horrifying reality of what sin does, what it actually brings about.
The rebellion of man wrecks havoc upon creation and fights against
the good gifts God gives in His creation. And it causes trouble for
all those who live upon the earth.
Revelation 9:1-6
– And the fifth angel blew, and I saw star having
fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key of the pit
of the abyss was given to him. (2) And he opened the pit, and arose
smoke from the well like the smoke of a great furnace, and darkened
was the sun and the air by the smoke of the pit. (3) And from the
smoke came locusts upon the earth, and they were given authority
like the power
of scorpions upon the earth. (4) And it was commanded to them that
they not do injustice to the grass of the earth nor all the green
plants nor all the trees, but only the people who do not have the
seal of God upon their foreheads. (5) They were given not to kill
them, but to torture them for five months, and the their torture was
like the torture of a scorpion whenever it stings someone. (6) And in
those days people will seek death and they will not find it, and they
will desire in their hearts to die and death will from them.
And
here Satan shows up. He is the fallen star, the fallen angel – (a
star was a poetic way to describe angels). And Satan gets a key –
but this is the key to the Abyss, the pit. Hell, hades, the abode of
demons. And the impact of hell is unleashed upon the earth – and
the smoke is everywhere – but note something interesting. Even
though Satan is a rebel against God and fights against God – he and
his minions are still limited in what they can do. There is still
Divine authority and protect here. The hell-smoke messes with
everything, but the grass and the plants and trees are protected. As
are the Christians – Satan cannot harm them (as we sing, “this
world's prince my still scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us
none, he's judged, the deed is done.) But for the rest, there is a
description of torturing, of the stings of a scorpion. Little things
but utterly painful, people wishing to die.
This is actually a
great depiction of how sin and wrath play out in the world.
Scripturally speaking, God's wrath isn't primarily Him smiting, but
rather letting people have their sinful way and then leaving them to
deal with the painful consequences. And that's the image here –
sin unleashes these troubles and those who live in sin get stung by
them over and over and over again – and life is turned into
something bitter and wretched. And hopefully folks learn from this
the folly of their ways.
As a closing note – there is
something that I think is fascinating. One of the things that I like
to harp on is that the word “authority” (exousia) when used in
the Scriptures tends to be a forgiveness word. Consider – in
Matthew 28 Jesus says that all authority has been given to Him –
and then He talks about Baptizing people. Authority when used by
Christ has strong forgiveness overtones. And here there is almost an
anti-authority – that those who do not want the forgiveness
flavored authority of Christ will get the devilish authority of
Satan. We are not independent – we are always either under Christ
or under Satan.
Revelation 9:7-13 – And the
locusts looked like horses ready for battle, and upon their heads
were crowns like
gold, and their faces were as human faces, (8) and they have hair
like women's hair, and their teeth like lion's teeth, (9) and they
have breastplates like iron
breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of
chariots of horses charging into battle. (100 And they have tails
like scorpions
with stings in the tails, and they had authority to do injustice to
men for five months. (11) They have as king over them the angel of
the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon
and in Greek his name is Apollyon.
(12) The first woe has gone on. Behold, coming yet are two more
with this!
Locusts were one of the 10 plagues of Egypt – they
were a divine warning, a divine punishment. And what you have here
with the depiction of these locusts rampaging upon the earth is a
mysterious and bizarre thing. In some ways I tend to think that this
is a description of all the wretched things that mankind does to
itself – the sins of violence and sex and greed that we unleash
upon each other. Others will argue that this is an emblem of demonic
oppression – and I can't really gainsay that. Perhaps there is a
highly moral point about Christians who keep their nose clean don't
get caught up in this stuff as much (live by the sword, die by the
sword), or perhaps it is pointing out that in reality there is a
highly spiritual and demonic component to the wickedness we see in
the world – a component that we modern folks tend to overlook.
Either way, there is something profound here. The
wickedness here unleashed may rage against God, but God is still in
control. Christianity is not a “Dualistic” religion. Dualistic
religions are those that have two great powers locked in combat – a
good god and a bad god. Not so the Christian faith – even as Satan
rebels, he still can only act within the limits God sets, and then
only as long as God permits. It's not a fight between equals –
it's a three year old “fighting” dad – which lasts only as long
as dad lets it. And since God is in control – there's a end.
There are limits and lines that Satan and his minions cannot cross.
Things come to an end. Locusts die (after five months typically),
and the power of the demonic is not eternal. God remains in control,
even when it looks and is scary.
Revelation 9:13-21 – And
the sixth angel blew, and I heard one voice from the four horns
of the golden altar before God (14) saying to the sixth angel (the
one who had the trumpet), “Loosen the four angels who are bound at
the great river Euphrates.” (15) And released were the four angels
who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the
year, to kill a third of mankind. (16) And the number of the army of
horsemen was a myriad of two myriads (10,000 times 20,000) – I
heard their number. (17) And thusly I saw the hours in the vision
and those riding upon them – they had breastplates of fire and
sapphire
and brimstone, and the heads of the horses were like the heads of
lions, and from their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone. (18)
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and
by the smoke and by the brimstone coming from their mouths. (19)
For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their
tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, by that is how
they do injustice.
(20) And the rest of mankind, the ones not
destroyed in these plagues, none of them repented of the works of
their hands, that they should no longer worship demons or idols of
gold or silver or bronze or stone or wood, which neither are able to
see or hear nor walk, (21) nor did they repent of their murders nor
of their sorcery
nor of their pornographic acts nor of their thievery.
And now more divine retribution is unleashed. This
would hearken back to the 10th plague in Egypt, where the
angel of death strikes. And this is meant to be a horrific vision,
something of doom and chaos. It's the horror of destruction. It's
the full idea of fire and brimstone coming down – it's what
happened to Sodom and Gomorrah – it's just bad. And it's been
prepared. The Euphrates is one of the four rivers that watered the
Garden of Eden – from the beginning this has been set up to deal
with mankind should they become wicked – and the chicken comes home
to roost. And the army is 200 million strong – and unimaginably
vast army. The consequences of sin and its dread impact is unleashed
upon the world in a most clear and dramatic way.
This should be enough of a clue to drive anyone to
repentance – and yet, there is no repentance. This is I think
something that we Christians need to be reminded of. We have been
brought to repentance – we can see the negative spiritual impact of
sin – “death and decay in all around I see” as the old hymn
puts it. The fact that we can see sin for what it is and repent of
it is a wonderful spiritual gift that we have been given by God. And
apart from God's help, people really can't see sin for what it is.
Even when hell is unleashed, people will go on blindly making excuses
and keeping on doing what they want to keep on doing. And that's
just the way it is – that's the reality of it. They know not what
they do. And I say that because this is number 6 – the Friday of
the week number. And it's agonizing to we who see – but this is
how it is.
Revelation 10:1-7 – And I saw
another Angel, strong, coming down from heaven encircled in clouds,
and a rainbow was over His head, and His face was like the sun, and
His feet were like pillars of fire, (2) and He had in His hands a
little opened scroll. He put His right foot on the sea and His left
upon the land, (3) and He cried out with a great voice, like a lion
roaring. And when He cried, seven thunders spoke with with their
voices. (4) And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write,
but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up that which the
seven thunders spoke, and do not write it.” (5) And the angel
whom I saw standing upon the sea and the land raised his right and to
heaven (6) and swore by the One Living to the ages of ages, Who
created heaven and what is in it, the earth and all that is on it,
and the sea and all that is in it, that there would be no more time,
(7) but in the days of the trumpet of the seventh angel being sounded
'finished' would be the mystery of God, just as he had 'gospeled' to
His servants the prophets.
Let's start here.
Remember – this is 6 – this is Friday. In fact, I would argue
that this is a depiction of Good Friday. This “Angel” is Christ
– and I'll say this because He described precisely as Christ is –
encircled in clouds, with a rainbow, a pillar of fire, able to walk
on the sea. This is Jesus – the Lion of Judah. But the kicker and
the key for all of this is in verse seven. The ESV translates that
as “the mystery of God would be fulfilled” - but we can miss it.
That word “finished” is the same word as what Jesus said upon the
Cross in John's Gospel – It is Finished.
So consider this. Even as Satan is roaring, and even
as all these demonic forces are running rampant upon the earth –
Jesus just does His thing. They don't stop Him, they don't prevent
Him. He goes forth and does His thing. And we don't see everything
– not everything is revealed to us. John doesn't get to write
everything he hears (remember, John's nickname was “son of
thunder”) - but John writes what we need to know. The time is
coming to a close, but that is okay for us, because the mystery, the
wonder is this. In Christ, it is finished. It's all wrapped up in
Him. Sin is done away with, death and destruction destroy, Satan
defeated. He's got the whole world in His hands (or at His feet),
and in Him it is all good. Really. It is. Nothing stops Him.
And this is the message that has been proclaimed
through the Prophets and apostles – I translated that word there as
“gospeled” because it is literally the verb form of evangelion –
of the noun for Gospel. This good news is proclaimed forth – even
as so many reject and refuse to repent and the world remains wicked
and there's still evil. It doesn't stop Jesus from being Jesus for
you. The book of life remains open in Christ, and your salvation
remains secure.
Revelation 10:8-11 – And the voice that I heard
from heaven spoke to me again and said, “go and take the scroll
that is opened in the hand of the Angel standing upon the sea and
upon the earth.” (9) And I went to the Angel and said to Him,
“Give me the little scroll.” And He said to me, “Take and eat
this, and it will embitter your belly, but in your mouth it will be
sweet as honey.” (10) And I took the little scroll from the hand
of the Angel, and I ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey,
and when I ate it, my belly was embittered. (11) And they said to
me, “It is necessary for you to prophesy again about the many
peoples and the nations and the tongues and kings.”
Sometimes
Christianity is accused of being a simple, pie in the sky fairy tale.
Here in Revelation, John knows in his gut that it is not –
literally. The Word of God is at the same time sweet and bitter –
it is both Law and Gospel. It is good news, but it also breaks our
sinful hearts. And it has to be that way, and that is what has to be
proclaimed, both Law and Gospel.
And I mean that literally – you cannot proclaim the
Gospel without proclaiming the Law. Consider the following
statement: “Jesus forgives your sins.” That is wondrous good
news, that is sweet gospel. Yet, as a friend of my says, the Gospel
has a backspin. “You are forgiven” implies that you have sins
that need to be forgiven. And you can't eliminate that idea of sin,
that Law, otherwise the Gospel is no longer the Gospel. This is why
the preaching of mere “acceptance” that goes on in so many places
today falls flat... because it's not forgiveness, and eventually
there's something or someone every group won't accept, something the
tolerant won't tolerate.
There is bitterness
and heartache associated with the Church. There is the personal
bitterness of seeing one's own sin – that breaking of our own heart
(a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise!). There
is the sorrow of rejection from others, where they reject God and us.
And this is hard – this is something that is bitter. But note
that this isn't something hidden, or something denied. It's part of
the deal straight from the jump in the Scriptures. This is true
here, this is true when Paul uses the Armor of God imagery (because
you don't wear armor for a picnic). There is strife. But what we
remember is that it's not a matter of “everything is great but then
God makes our lives lousy as Christians and we have to give up all
this stuff.” Rather, it's everything is evil and corrupt, and God
rescues us – even while we are impacted by evil, and indeed, by
being rescued understand more and more how evil things
are.
Revelation 11:1-3 – And then was given to
me a pen
like a scepter,
and he was saying saying, “Get up and measure the temple of God and
the altar and those worshiping in it. (2) And the court that is
outside of the temple leave off and do not measure it, because it is
given to the nations, and the holy city they will trample
for 42 months. (3) And I will give to my two witnesses, and they
will prophesy for 1260 days covered in sackcloth.
Here we
end up getting some highly symbolic language that plays off of times
of oppression, both in the Old Testament and in recent (to John)
history. First, this plays off of Ezekiel, where he is given the
measurements of the New Temple – of course, he is given this in
Babylon as the old temple lies in ruins. Second, more recently,
Jerusalem was besieged for right around 42 months (which is half of 7
years, by the by), and then it was trampled by the Romans. Third,
Antiochus Epiphanes ran roughshod over Jerusalem for the same time
span from 167-164 BC (which is when the traditions of Hanukkah get
started). And yet, all the while, in the midst of all these terrors
and troubles and strifes, there still are prophets proclaiming
repentance.
Revelation 11:4-8 – These are the two olive
trees and the two lampstands which are standing before the LORD of
the earth. (5) And if someone wants to do injustice to them, fire
pours from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if someone
should want to do injustice to them, thus it is necessary
for them to die. (6) They have the authority to close heaven,
so that no rain may fall in the days of their prophesying, and they
have authority upon the waters to turn them into blood and to strike
the earth with every sort of plague, as often as they will. (7) And
whenever they have finished their witnessing, the beast that rises
from the abyss will make war with them and victor over them and kill
them. (8) And their corpses will lay in the streets of that great
city, which is spiritually
called Sodom and Egypt, and where their LORD was crucified.
Alright – this again is playing off of the Old
Testament, and through parts of it that we are not familiar with.
Zechariah 4 has a vision that dovetails this – the olive trees are
the preachers of the Word, the anointed of God. And what happens
with the preachers? Well, those who resist the Word of God get
burned with fire from their mouth (there's a reason for the term
preaching fire and brimstone). And the prophets did many things –
Elijah closed heaven (for 3 ½ years – like the 1260 days) and
Moses brought plagues and all those sorts of things. And the
prophets died and were murdered – Jesus laments that Jerusalem
stones the prophets. And all this power of preaching and all this
disdain of preaching wraps up and reaches its apex in Christ Jesus.
The tragedy of Sodom and the wickedness of Egypt pales to the outrage
of the Crucifixion.
Yet, that is where we are. Now. Much of this passage
is present tense – this is still the reality. The Word of God
still goes forth, and people still don't care for it, and they still
make war upon the Church. And preachers are given to preach the law
and even close up heaven. But even as we in our day see struggle –
and in John's day they saw struggle up close and personal, this is
nothing new. And as we shall see, the LORD is still in control.
Revelation 11:9-14 – And shall see will folks of
every people and tribe and tounge and nation their corpses for three
and a half days, and they will not allow
their bodies to be buried. (10) And those dwelling upon the earth
will rejoice over them and make merry and send gifts to each other,
because those two prophets had tormented those dwelling upon the
earth. (11) And after three and a half days a Spirit of Life from God
went into them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell
on those who saw them. (12) And they heard a great voice from heaven
saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in the
clouds, and their enemies looked on. (13) And at that hour there was
a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and in the
earthquake 7000 people were killed, and the rest became terrified
gave glory to the God of heaven. (14) The second woe has passed.
Behold, the third woe comes swiftly!
When
death and harm falls upon the Church, folks rejoice. They celebrate.
The Church torments the sinner – not necessarily in a literal
Spanish Inquisition way, but sinful man cannot abide the preaching of
the law. Does anyone today like it when the Church says that what
they are doing is wrong? And so when the preaching of the Word is
struck down, the world rejoices. There are people that are
celebrating and rejoicing that the Church is in decline in this
country. However, God is not the God of the dead but the God of the
living. Death is always followed by Resurrection – Jesus is the
pattern of what we will all follow. Wickedness only reigns for a
time – then the resurrection, then the joys of the life of the
world to come. The wickedness of the world cannot stop it.
In many ways, what I think this part of Chapter 11 is
doing is in a very elegant way tying together the Old Testament and
the Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the current life of the
Church. It is the same thing – but Christ is our head, whether we
are Old Testament folks or New Testament folks. In Christ, we have
life, even if the world thinks it has won.
Part 6
– The Unholy Trinity Fight God (Chapters 12-14)
Here we enter
another vision describing the way the world works. This is an epic
vision of a fight, a contest. It is the image of Satan and falsehood
and wickedness throwing itself against God and His church. It
depicts the persistent spiritual warfare that is constantly going on
until the end.
Revelation 12:1-6 – And a great sign appeared in
heaven: a woman wrapped in the sun, and the moon was beneath her
feet, and upon her head was a crown of twelve stars, (2) and she was
with child, and cries with the labor pains of giving birth. (3) And
another sign appeared in heaven, and behold a great fiery dragon,
having seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems, (4)
and his tail dragged down a third of the stars of heaven and threw
them upon the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was
giving birth, so that when the child was born he could devour it. (5)
She gave birth to a son, who is to rule all nations with a rod of
iron, and her child was snatched to God and to His throne. (6) And
she fled into the desert, where there was a place prepared for her by
God, that she should be fed there 1260 days.
So here we get a picture of the history of the Church –
from the beginning to the end. The Church is the woman with the
twelve star crown – twelve tribes in the Old Testament and the
twelve apostles in the New. And the life of the the Church is hard –
but this shouldn't surprise us. Jesus gives us this sort of imagery
in John 16 when He uses child birth as the image of a Christian's
life in this world. And set against the woman is the great dragon –
Satan. And what does Satan want to do? He wants to destroy the
child (Jesus), but is unable to. Then the woman finds shelter in the
desert away from the dragon.
John here is giving
us a way of interpreting Scripture and the history of the world.
What do we see all throughout the Old Testament? We see Satan trying
to destroy the promise of the Messiah. This is something that is
vital to reading the Old Testament – follow the promise of the
Messiah. The promise must be protected, and the promise is often
opposed. This is why you have God act mightily for Israel against
Egypt, this is why you have all the woes and prophecies given in the
Old Testament. The Messiah must be born, but Satan hounds the Church
of the Old Testament all the way through.
Then you have the short depiction of the life of Christ
– He is born and taken up to the throne. After that, the Church
flees to the wilderness for the appointed time. We are still hounded
by Satan, exiles, soujourners (I am but a stranger here), yet we are
cared for by God. As much as it might seem that Satan roars and
overpowers everything, still God is in control and preserves His
Church.
Revelation 12:7-12 – And it happened that there
was war in heaven, The Michael and His angels made war with the
dragon. And the dragon fought back, and his angels with him, (8) but
he had no strength, nor was any place found for them any longer in
heaven. (9) And cast down was the great dragon, that original
serpent, the one called the devil and Satan - the deceiver of the
whole world – cast down was he upon the earth, and his angels with
him were cast down. (10) And I heard a great voice in heaven saying,
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our
God and the authority of His Christ, for cast down is the Accuser
of our brothers, who accuses them in the face of God day and night.
(11) And they have victored over him through the blood of the lamb
and through the word of their witness, and they have not loved their
live even unto death. (12) On account of this rejoice, O heavens and
all who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and sea, for the devil has
come upon you in great fierceness, knowing
that his season is short.
Here we see the heavenly reality of Satan's attack upon
the Church. Satan is cast from heaven (and the demons with him) by
Michael and His angels. Now, note, I capitalize “His” there,
because I think Michael here refers to Jesus – not a separate
entity named Michael. This is one of the great debates that rages
happily amongst theologians – and to be flat out honest, we aren't
sure. However, the name Michael is interesting – it is Hebrew for
“One Who is Like God” - which sure sounds like Jesus to me. And
when Satan is tossed out, we have the victory via the blood of the
Lamb.
Either way, Satan is cast down from heaven, and he can
no longer accuse you before God. This is one of the things we miss
about the name “Satan” - which means accuser. Think of Satan as
the prosecutor of the heavenly courts, bringing charges against
sinful man. The prosecutor is in the court room – this is why they
didn't think it odd in the slightest when Satan is up talking to God
in the book of Job. Of course he is – he's the accuser and so he
has to accuse. (Literally “Satan” means accuser.) But now, on
account of Christ, the prosecutor is kicked out of heaven – the
case is closed and dismissed. You are declared not guilty because of
the blood of the lamb and the testimony given that you belong to
Christ. The victory is won.
And Satan is ticked. And the earth feels it. His rage
at his defeat is passed on to those upon the earth, and all the more
so for he knows that the end is coming, but he doesn't know when, and
so even in defeat he roars. But still, Satan is defeated, and we
dwell in the place prepared for us.
Revelation 12:13-17 – And when the dragon saw
that he was thrown upon the earth, he hounded
the woman who had given birth to the Man. (14) But the woman was
given two wings of the great eagle, so that she might fly into the
wilderness to her own place, where she would be fed for a season and
seasons and a half season, away from the face of the serpent. (15)
And the serpent cast from his mouth towards the woman water like a
river, so that he might make her swept away. (16) But the earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the
flood which the dragon had cast from his mouth. (17) And the dragon
was enraged at the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of
her seed, with those keep the commandments of God and having the
testimony of Jesus.
And
here we see the history of the world, of the Church. Satan in his
rage roars against the Church, and he tries to destroy it. Yet, God
always preserves His church. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. However, the image here is interesting – in the
wilderness east of Jerusalem there are what are called “Wadis” -
or basically dry riverbeds. Rains are dangerous, because there are
flash floods that form instant, powerful rivers that can sweep folks
away – and because the way the ground is, it can't absorb the
water. The image here is that of Satan trying to whip up his own
flood in a place where that should work, but God's creation resisting
Satan. It's a really neat image. And you've got the imagery of
Elijah in the wilderness for three and a half years kept safe from
wicked Jezebel and the like – it's playing off of what folks would
know.
So if Satan can't get the Church, he tries to pick off
members of the Church. And the description of folks in the Church is
interesting. We know the commandments and we have the testimony, the
witness of Christ. We have Law and Gospel. And that royally ticks
Satan off. And so that is what Satan will try to fight against.
Revelation 13:1-4 – (And I
stood on the sand of the sea) And I saw from the sea a beast rise up,
having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns were ten
diadems, and on its head were names of Blasphemy. (2)And the beast
that I saw was like a leopard, and it's feet were like a bear's, and
it's mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his
power and his throne and great authority. (3) And one of its heads
was like it had been slaughtered to the point of death, but the
deadly wound was healed, and and the whole of the land marveled at
the beast, (4) and they worshiped the dragon because he gave
authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast saying, “Who
is like the beast, and who had power to fight with it?”
What we have here is a description of false religion, a
copy-cat religion from Satan sent to displace the true faith.
Historically speaking, most of the really old pagan religions had
basically giant sea-monster gods – especially in Mesopotamia and
the fertile crescent. This actually comes up in how Genesis 1 is
written – note that the Spirit of God was hovering over the
face of the deep. It's an anti-sea creature worship point. It's
Leviathan and Behemoth and all those really old stories that were old
even in Old Testament times.
But it's not just that they are false gods – they
ape, they mimic the true story of salvation. Scholars in the
Enlightenment began to note how many similarities there were between
Christianity and other religions, and so they “determined” that
“clearly” Christianity is just a repackaging of these other
stories. John here asserts the opposite – that Satan will stir up
false faiths that are mockeries and fun-house-mirrors of the
Christian faith. And that's because Satan is a liar, and if you are
going to tell a lie, it has to be based off of but distorting the
truth. If I were to say, “I saw Gerry eat 15 pounds of chocolate”
that wouldn't be all that believable. If I were to say, “I saw
Gerry golfing, and he got mad and whacked a golf ball out into the
trees after he missed a put” - you might believe it (even though
Gerry doesn't hit balls into the wood, he pulls them out). If you
are going to distort the truth, you have to be somewhat close to the
truth.
This is why I as a pastor am so critical of other
Christian denominations and other teachers and the like. This is
because Satan tries to twist the story of Christ and His salvation,
and it's not normally with something that looks catastrophically
different than Christianity, but rather simply presenting a
Christless Christianity – where instead of the focus being on
Jesus, there's some other hybrid thing in His place. There's some
denial of Christ's Word or Christ's power. And we acknowledge that
any teaching that contradicts the Word of God and Christ's salvation
is, in a word, Satanic.
One other key point here is this. Note that this beast
is wounded... but doesn't die. And the wounds go away. Contrast
that with Jesus. He is wounded... and He dies. But then He rises,
but even after He rises He still bears His wounds (see My hands, see
My side). There's an important nuance here. Jesus doesn't say that
you will never suffer, never die. He says that you will live even
though you die. Satan and his false religions are all a vain effort
to keep from dying. And people flock to it, fearing death – for
the wages of sin is death.
Revelation 13:5-10 – And the beast was given a
mouth speaking great and blasphemous things, and it was given
authority for 42 months. (6) And it opened it's mouth to blaspheme
against God, blaspheming His name and His “tenting”
- the ones tenting in heaven. (7) And it was given to make war with
the holy ones and victor over them, and it was given authority upon
all tribes and peoples and tongues and nations. (8) And they
worshiped it, all who reside upon the earth, everyone whose name has
not been written in the book of the Life of the Lamb who was slain
from before the foundation of the world. (9) If anyone has hears, let
him hear! (10) If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he
goes. If anyone by a sword is to be slain, he must be by the sword
be slain. Here is the the endurance
and faith of the saints.
And John here is blunt warning that Satan is going to
have his false church have power and mess with folks. And what will
this false church do? It will blaspheme the name of God – or in
other words there will be heresies about God (Trinitarian heresies).
It will blaspheme the dwelling, the incarnation of Jesus
(Christological heresies). There will be blasphemy about those who
are saved (soteriological heresies). And it will have lots of power
(institutional heresies).
Many years ago it was suggested that I work up a class
for the University of Oklahoma's religious studies department on the
history of heresy. This passage is describing all the types and ways
in which error has combated the church in history. People have
denied who God is, who Jesus is, how salvation works, and built up
institutions that have displaced Christ. (If you want, I can expand
and given examples of each of these.) This is just how Satan works,
how Satan attacks the Church. And things often go badly for the
faithful. That's just the way it is – and if you are in a time or
place where things go badly for you, so be it.
Revelation 13:11-18 – And I saw another beast
rising from the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke
like the Dragon. (12) And it does all the authority of the first
beast in his presence, and it makes the earth and all its inhabitants
worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. (13) And it
does great signs, to make fire come down from heaven to the earth in
front of the people. (14) And it seduces the inhabitants of the
earth by the signs which it is given to do in the presence of the
beast, telling the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the
beast that was wounded by the sword and lived. (15) And given to it
was power to “spirit” the image of the beast, so that the image
of the beast would speak and that whoever would not worship the image
of the beast would be killed. (16) And it made all, both small and
great, rich and pour, free and slave, to be stamped
on the right hand or forehead, (17) and that no one is able to buy or
sell if he doesn't have the stamp, that is the name of the beast and
the number of its name. (18) Here is wisdom: The one having
know-how shall calculate the number of the beast – for it is the
number of a man. And the number is 666.
Before we get to 666 and all the speculation there,
let's look at this interesting section. This is some powerful stuff.
There's a new fake high priest as it were, pointing people to the
beast. And using power and coercion. This is why the early
Lutherans said the Papacy (note – the institution of the Papacy,
not any individual pope) was the anti-christ. Dominating control
forcing false worship. And things look right – it looks like a
Lamb and the idol is talking – in the old testament the point was
that idols never talked and never heard but this one seems to do so.
And wouldn't it just be better to go along to get along... this is
the picture that is being painted.
Now, there are several ideas for what 666 might be (we
can talk numbers before Arabic numerals and we can talk about slot
machines), but I think this should be best understood as thinking of
how Satan works more so than trying to pin this tail on one
particular donkey. Satan loves to have a false worship – he loves
to ape the things of the Church – false messiahs, false worship,
false liturgies, false sacraments. But everything is reversed –
instead of the “receive this and live” of the Church, it's a “do
this or die”. This is why these all get wrapped up under the
moniker of “anti-Christ” – because they are mirror images
opposed to Christ and His truth.
Revelation 14:1-5 – And I looked, and behold!
The Lamb standing upon Mount Zion, and with 144,000 having His name
and the name of His Father written upon their foreheads. (2) and I
heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the
voice of great thunder, and the voice which I heard was like harpers
harping upon their harps. (3) and they sang a new song before the
throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no
one was able to learn the song except the 144,000, the ones who had
been purchased away from the earth. (4) These are the ones who have
not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the
ones who accompany the Lamb wherever He should go. They have been
purchased away from men as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, (5) and
in their mouths no lie is to be found: they are without blemish.
Even while Satan rants and raves, and his false church
does all its stuff – the True Church remains. The Lamb is risen,
He stands on Zion, and the faithful have the name of the True God on
their foreheads. Over and against the falsehood of Satan, your
Baptism still holds. And as the Baptized we know we are beyond just
the humdrum of this world and of Satan's power, for we have been
purchased away from the world and away from mankind and won unto
Jesus Christ. Pure, innocent, and holy. Blameless before God –
for we are with the Lamb, and as He is, so are we before God.
This
transition highlights much of the frustration I have with how
Revelation is approached as a book. Just before this, we get the
famous 666, which is mentioned really just in passing, almost as an
aside. So many people get hung up there, not noticing the next
verse. Behold! Look here – the Lamb is still victorious and the
Church still sings the triumph song! In the face of all this
wickedness, Jesus still wins. That's the point – and the only
times that the powers of Satan are mentioned in this book are to show
that while they are scary, Jesus still wins.
